O Little Town of Bethlehem #BOTB hit it off on #4M #Christmas #music

Good morning, kittens & dawgs! It’s that most wonderful time of the year and if you’re feeling like Scrooge then hopefully today’s music will melt your ba-hum-bug self away.

All month, the Monday’s Music Moves Me crew will dish up some of your favorite Christmas tunes to rock the season. It just so happens #BOTB & #4M are doing the bump again, so this will be a dual post. To start off the battle and the holiday mood, I decided to go with a theme within a theme with songs of Bethlehem. Of course, I will only have one song title with two artists trying to outshine the other.

Traditional Christmas songs are excellent covers for artists of all genre. Personally, my favorite sounds of Christmas music is best delivered by classic voices of yesteryear ~ Crosby, Williams, Sinatra, Cole, & Martin to name just a few. However, I decided on the contemporary Christian singer, Chris Tomlin and soft pop rocker, Sarah McLachlan to do this old-time favorite of mine, O Little Town of Bethlehem.

Which soloist does it better & why? Remember your vote decides who wins!

Okay, on behalf of the lovely Dancing Queen, Marie @XmasDolly, and her Solid Gold dancers ~ Callie @JAmericanSpice, Stacy @Stacy Uncorked, Becca @Everyday Life, & myself thank you for joining us for another week of Monday’s Music Moves Me.

Now, it’s time for you to ask us to step out on the dance floor with you. By linking your musical post (Our Hostess labels or removes non-music links) URL (not your main blog address) below you are inviting the 4M crew to boogie down to your tunes.

For all you regular 4Mers, please dance over to these fine musical buds to listen to their battling duos & vote!

Next Monday, I’ll share this week’s #BOTB winner, but don’t forget to vote! I am ready to have a merry ole good time this Christmas and I’ll be by your place soon wearing sleigh bells to see what tunes you are sharing. Put on a pot of coffee ’cause next stop… your place! What music moves you?

Oh I love Chris Tomlin!! I have a lot of his worship music and I just love his voice.
and that is really saying something because Sarah is Canadian and I am pretty sure I have to leave my country now. 🙂
but both tunes are fantastic really.

I thought I’d like the Tomlin version since I like so many other songs of his. I found it lackluster and disappointing (expectations too high???). On the other hand, I think Sarah has a gorgeous voice, and this song was no exception. So, chalk another vote for SM.

I am personally partial to Sarah McLachlan, though both were pretty. What is #BOTB? If it is music-related, I’m thinking I may need to join up! (Though I know my music isn’t everyone’s cup o’ tea, so I’m not sure….) Happy Music Monday!

Yeah, Belle! #BOTB aka Battle of the Band is a music theme posted put on twice each month (1st & 15th) where you select two artists compete doing the same song. It’s a fun meme. To learn more, visit STMcC Presents Battle of the Band! Thanks for stopping by & casting your vote!

I vote for Sarah as it was just the right length. I could not listen to a whole Christmas CD of hers but I prefer it over Tomlin. I am one for traditional and lean more to classical side of things but his ended up to be too long and it felt boring at the end

Yeah, I would say that I prefer the second one also. Not by a whole lot, but the first one was certainly longer than it needed to be.

To be honest, I didn’t feel either version sounded particularly inspired, but both were pleasant enough and the second one was prettier than the first, so it looks like I’m in agreement with everyone else here so far.

What a cool idea, Cathy! I’m going to have to go with Sarah’s cover – the first one was just meh…I’ve always been partial to Sarah’s voice, and with these two covers there’s really no comparison as hers has much more personality and listenability… 🙂 Thanks for the dance – hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and wonderful Christmas season! 🙂

I like both of these artists, but I fully expected Chris Tomlin to be my preferred choice. Alas, I must vote for Sarah on this song. The Tomlin version was too lackluster for my taste–perhaps too common with traditionality. Sarah’s version had more feeling in my opinion. Her version was tight and nicely presented.

I agree with you, Lee. I much prefer Sarah’s cover over Tomlin’s for the same reasons. I made a goof by not saying one way or the other in my post this week. I guess I had too much Thanksgiving preparations going on to see that I missed this detail. *sigh* Oh well…thanks for stopping by. Have a good week!

The years always pass by much to fast. It would be nice to throw the brakes on to slow time down a wee bit, but I’m afraid this ride is out of our hands. Thanks for dancing with the 4M crew this morning, Steve!